1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program reservation apparatus for reserving a broadcast program for viewing or recording.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a digital broadcast, a program chart called an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) is transmitted at any time. The EPG includes program information which indicates its ID (identification information) or broadcast date and time (a time interval from start date and time of broadcast to end date and time of broadcast) for each broadcast program. In this manner, the EPG can be not only viewed as a program chart, but also can be used for reservation for the purpose of viewing or recording a broadcast program.
A program to be broadcast is not broadcast in any case at a predetermined date and time of broadcast by virtue of a reason such as extension of another program or broadcast of a special program. A change of schedule caused by such a reason is reflected in an EPG to be transmitted. A program reserved by the EPG can specify the corresponding program information contained in the received EPG by means of an ID registered during reservation. Thus, such a change in broadcast can be properly made in reservation contents.
However, the above EPG consists of 8-day information. In order reserve to a program scheduled to be broadcast the 8th day or later, the associated reservation contents, namely, channel or reserved date and time (time interval from start date and time to end date and time) must be manually set. However, as described above, the predetermined broadcast contents are occasionally changed. Thus, even if a manual reservation has been made, a program to be reserved cannot be reliably viewed or recorded.